Ranching, timber, environmental groups announce joint effort for wilderness in NE Washington

Wash. alliance aims to aid economy and environment

SPOKANE, Wash. — A remote and poor corner of northeastern Washington has become a place where loggers, ranchers and conservation groups are finding common ground in helping business and protecting the environment.

Conservation Northwest announced a new campaign Wednesday that brings together often-bitter antagonists who will cooperate to increase recreation, sustain working ranches and create jobs in the Columbia Highlands region.

Some also hope to persuade Congress to create new federal recreation and wilderness areas.

The new coalition dramatically expands on a similar effort over the past eight years to cooperate on logging in the Colville National Forest.

“Now we are working on wilderness and areas that need to be preserved, not just managed,” said Jasmine Minbashian, spokeswoman for the Columbia Highlands Initiative.

Tim Coleman of Conservation Northwest said it takes a collaborative approach to protect nature and rural lifestyles.

“Maintaining wildlife pathways and healthy forests also means that we need to maintain our timber jobs and the large habitat-rich ranches,” Coleman said.

Over the past eight years, timber and environmental groups, working as the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition, have managed to improve forest stewardship and maintain timber harvest on the Colville National Forest. The effort virtually ended lawsuits and appeals over logging in the forest.

The Columbia Highlands Initiative hopes to expand on that success, as it includes many of the same players.

Details are still being negotiated, and ranchers and loggers are keeping a close eye on the proposals for more wilderness, which is not open to development. Conservation Northwest wants to add more than 180,000 acres of wilderness to the Colville National Forest, plus preserve other forest lands and create recreation areas. Minbashian said the group hopes to raise $2 million privately and also seek federal funds for the work.

But they also will work with ranchers to buy easements and keep key ranches in operation for cattle production and wildlife habitat, rather than being broken up for real estate or mining.

“When the property around us starts growing houses instead of grass and trees, that hurts us and the wildlife,” said Bryan Gotham, a Ferry County rancher.

A key player is Russ Vaagen, manager of Vaagen Bros. Lumber, one of the biggest employers in the region. He said cooperation has helped the company maintain its work force in tough economic times.

“There’s an acceptable balance in both sustaining jobs in the woods and protecting some special places,” Vaagen said.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., have worked with the group and applauded the efforts to find common ground, Minbashian said.

“When the time is right, I will be honored to introduce wilderness legislation in the U.S. Senate,” Cantwell said in a written statement this summer. McMorris Rodgers is waiting to review the final proposal.

John Eminger, owner of 49 Degrees North Ski Area, said wildlife and wilderness draw visitors to the mountainous areas north of Spokane. The region depends on natural resource jobs and typically suffers from high unemployment.